Martin H. Ruby

Martin (Marty) Ruby is the founder and CEO of Stonewood Financial, a firm specializing in index annuities.

Stonewood Financial focuses on the senior market, providing ideas for innovative uses of life insurance and annuity products designed to increase clients’ wealth and improve cash flow. As an actuary with more than 30 years of experience in the life insurance industry in a variety of actuarial, product development, and executive roles, Mr. Ruby brings a unique perspective to the sales process. His knowledge and experience allow Mr. Ruby to assume an advisory role to both the client and his or her advisors during this process.

Prior to forming Stonewood Financial, Mr. Ruby was head of the Life and Annuity Industry Group of ChannelPoint, a technology company focused on linking an insurance company’s distribution channels to its back office systems through the Internet.

During the 1990’s Mr. Ruby was co-founder and CEO of ARM Financial Group and its insurance subsidiary Integrity Life. Integrity Life specialized in asset accumulation products such as annuities and single premium life. In the 1980’s he held several senior executive positions at Capital Holding Corporation (Capital Holding later was renamed Providian and subsequently acquired by AEGON). While there he served as head of product development for Capital’s six life subsidiaries and was responsible for starting several new business lines.

Marty has addressed numerous financial planning and insurance organizations, including members of the Million Dollar Round Table at their annual convention He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and holds an MBA from Bellarmine University.

Over the course of his career, Marty has conceived, formed, and managed a number of innovative insurance-based businesses. These businesses share a number of common characteristics; in many cases they have relied on unique product designs or distribution channels. In others, they tested new markets for existing products. In still others, the businesses were turnaround situations – existing business in need of reform while new products and channels were being introduced.

Career highlights and achievements:

1. Developed one of the first universal life products in the industry (1981). The version Mr. Ruby designed was the first to use an index to set interest rates. This required both a new product design and an underlying asset-liability management strategy.
2. Developed the industry’s first indexed GIC (1982) using similar asset-liability management technology that supported the UL product.
3. Launched a new product line- structured settlements (1983). This product line grew from scratch to $250 million in premium within three years.
4. Developed and launched the concept of a marketing partnership program (1985). This business leveraged the technology used to support UL products to develop partnerships with other insurers who lacked the resources necessary to support their own UL product line.
5. Started a GIC business in the Far East (1986). This was the first time that a U.S. insurer had entered a foreign market using an institutional-oriented product.
6. Improved and assumed management of an existing retail annuity operation (1986) that resulted in expanded marketing channels, product re-design, and improved margins.
7. Formed an insurance company within an existing holding company devoted to accumulation products (1991). Everything from products to pricing to distribution strategies was developed.
8. Led the acquisition of two existing life insurance companies (1993 and 1995) that were used to support an innovative retail annuities business. In this case, new products were developed, distribution channels were expanded, and a new pricing discipline was introduced. Operations were moved to less-expensive locations and a new human resources structure was established that included a company-wide bonus plan.
9. Launched the industry’s first totally automated, web-based system for annuities (1997) that allowed agents and brokers to buy and service variable annuities over the internet. This technology was developed in-house and resulted in better service at a reduced cost.
10. Designed and developed one of the industry’s first web-based technology products (2000) that allowed agents to buy and service medically underwritten life insurance products on a fully automated basis through the Internet.
11. Performed the first actuarial study for the life settlements industry (2001).
12. Developed a unique non-recourse premium financed life insurance product (2005).